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Australian athletes 'went to support their mates'

AOC Chief executive Fiona de Jong addresses the media over reports that ten Australian athletes have been detained in Rio for allegedly tampering with their Olympic accreditation to gain entry to the Boomers basketball game.

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Australian athletes released in Rio

Australian athletes released in Rio

The ten athletes involved in alleged credentials tampering are released on a good behaviour bond after paying a fine and apologising, AOC Chief executive Fiona de Jong said. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.

Australian athletes 'went to support their mates'

AOC Chief executive Fiona de Jong addresses the media over reports that ten Australian athletes have been detained in Rio for allegedly tampering with their Olympic accreditation to gain entry to the Boomers basketball game.

Earlier, Australian Olympic Committee representatives were preparing to drive outside of Rio so they could pay a fine of about $37,000 to Brazilian authorities. The fiasco is the subject of a deeper review by team chiefs.

Chiller revealed on Sunday morning she became aware of stickers being misused on accreditations in the Australian camp to gain entry to Olympic competition days before it led to the apprehension of the nine Australians, and a tenth team member being detained as a witness.

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Chiller, who replaced Nick Green as chef de mission for these Olympics, said she ordered team officials not to continue with the practice. She stopped short, however, of saying her instructions were defied.

"It has been a practice that's happened in many Olympic Games, amongst many NOCs (National Olympic Committees).

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"I became aware of it a few days earlier and I put a stop to it. I said that's not the way that our team should behave. And it shouldn't be facilitated," Chiller said.

They were told on Saturday, however, that there was a chance they might be without passports when the bulk of the team boarded its chartered fight.

Between them, the athletes were fined 90,000 reais ($37,000), which the AOC was going to pay.

But the large financial transaction needed to be completed in a bank and, complicating matters, none were going to be open in Rio on Monday on account of a public holiday. It is unclear if the passports were returned on account of the fine being paid or for another reason.

Chiller spent Saturday in Rio in meetings with the 10 athletes involved in the saga – cyclist Matt Glaetzer was detained by police but not charged or fined – their team leaders and coaches.

She said she "and others" from the Australian team hierarchy had apologised to each athlete face to face. Two team psychologists assisted in the process, conducting a group briefing and one-on-ones with the athletes.

Chiller also spoke with the concerned parents of athletes.

"I've said before I'm embarrassed that they had to go through that. It was a very difficult evening, night, for them and they shouldn't have had to go through that. It shouldn't have come to that."

Palmer is also free to leave the country after giving a statement to local authorities about events that saw him hand over $1000, apparently at gunpoint, at a bank teller machine during his post-competition escapade. Chiller said the police debrief, which Palmer apparently volunteered despite his initial decision not to report his brush with crime with authorities was "lengthy".

"The police took his account of incidents, thanked him for reporting those incidents and said they will continue to investigate it," Chiller said.

"Josh was obviously free to leave, as he always was, but he did the right thing by going to the police and explaining what happened to help the police hopefully look further or investigate the incident."

While insistent the Australian team should largely be proud of itself for its performance in Rio, Chiller ultimately termed the Games as "the most trying Games for many, many people on the official side. Much more so than any Games that I've been involved with and this is my fourth Games as an official".

She added: "What I can say though is that any of those off field issues and challenges that we had, I'm very, very confident in saying that they did not impact on our performance at all."